


Lessons Learned

by EwanMcGregorIsMyHomeboy12



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo Card 1 [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Anakin Skywalker Whump, Angst, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Blood, Burns, Cody is the best, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Exhaustion, Food Sharing, Force Exhaustion (Star Wars), Gen, Graphic Description of Injury, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Obi-Wan Kenobi Whump, Reluctant Caretaker, Sharing an Orange is an Intimate Act, field medicine, hospital stay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:47:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29305215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EwanMcGregorIsMyHomeboy12/pseuds/EwanMcGregorIsMyHomeboy12
Summary: “Ill watch him,” Cody said, “So you can rest.”“I can’t leave him,” Obi-Wan answered softly, “And I won’t.”Bad Things Happen Bingo Prompt(s): Hospital Stay and Reluctant Caretaker for meantforinfinitesadness and fangirlshipper
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo Card 1 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2123604
Comments: 3
Kudos: 123





	Lessons Learned

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meantforinfinitesadness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meantforinfinitesadness/gifts), [fangirlshipper](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirlshipper/gifts).



> More BTHB! :D I'll be doing a second reluctant caretaker prompt, but I hope you enjoy this one! :D 
> 
> As always, I hope you enjoy. Please R and R, let me know what you think! 
> 
> Find me and my bingo card on tumblr; requests are certainly open!

“They were all out of muja fruit.”

Obi-Wan startled at the sound of his voice, turning his head quickly over his shoulder. Cody slid into the seat next to him, handing him instead some sort of orange fruit with a thick peel and section he could pry apart. They were always limited on missions like this, so far from Coruscant, in terms of the fresh food they could get. He had dug through the bins for a good few minutes looking for a muja until Waxer had come up beside him to help him look, unknowingly halfway through eating the last one.

Obi-Wan took it gratefully, and though Cody expected him to shift away in his seat, he didn’t. Instead, Cody could feel Obi-Wan pressed against him, the minute shifting of his arms as started to peel away the outer layer of the fruit.

“How is he doing?” Cody looked at the bed as he spoke, swallowing the bile that rose in his throat. General Skywalker was—perhaps thankfully—unconscious, his entire face obscured with heavy bandages. They wrapped around his torso too, though they were thinner. At some point, they had run out of bandages.

“Better,” Obi-Wan said, “He’s sleeping now, instead of unconscious.”

Obi-Wan’s voice was a lead weight, and the exhaustion that rolled off of him stifled Cody with an intensity he hadn’t been expecting. They were short medical supplies, and Helix had spent most of the aftermath of the explosion aiding injured troopers who had lost everything from eyebrows to limbs to lives. The detonator had been waiting for them, and the fireball that followed had done exactly what the Seppies had planned for it to do.

Cody had watched it rise out of the building like a dragon, had watched the bodies and armor and bricks fly into the air. Had watched as Obi-Wan had dropped to the ground as it roared over him, missing death by inches.

Skywalker hadn’t been so lucky.

Cody knew that Obi-Wan was strong. Not in some abstract sense of the word, but in real physical strength. With and without the aid of the force, he had seen him do extraordinary things. But in that moment, watching him carry General Skywalker from the smoke and fire and rubble, cradled to his chest as though he were nothing more than a small child…Cody had stilled for a moment, only a moment, in shock. Cody had lost sight of them both after that, moving to help haul out the other injured men or take count of the bodies that had mounted from the explosion instead.

When he had found them again, it was after Helix had done his workover on General Skywalker. He had managed to protect his head from the fire, that was the main thing Cody took from Helix’s explanation, which was the only reason he was still alive. No smoke inhalation, no burns on his skin or hair. He had not been able to keep the shrapnel off, however, and though Cody had only caught a glimpse as it was covered, a huge, splitting scar over his left eye had swollen it shut and there were flecks of blood and bruises spread out over the other skin where he had been struck with bits of metal and mortar. His torso, not as protected as his head had been, was stretched with burns and blistered skin, blood spattering against the bandages even as Cody watched.

He had expected Obi-Wan to be more upset than he was. To see, reflected on his face the slightest resemblance of the agony that had been present when Cody had seen him emerge from the fire with Skywalker against his chest. Instead, he had had been in a sort of trance. A real trance, according to Helix, that was designed to promote healing through the force.

That had been a few hours ago: Obi-Wan had only spoken to Cody even as Cody went to leave, only to accept his offer of brining food upon his return before he had shifted back to how he was. .

“Is it because of what you were doing?”

Obi-Wan didn’t respond for a moment, instead concentrating on the fruit with an excess of focus, digging a finger in too deeply juice burst from the tear in the peel. Obi-Wan stared at it for a heartbeat too long before he laughed softly at himself, peeling the outer layer back to show the deep red flesh underneath.

“Yes, it’s a Jedi Healing trance,” He explained, but the words sounded hollow coming from his mouth. It didn’t take a medic to see that he was severely exhausted. Cody didn’t know all of the intricacies of the force, but that had to have been what did it. Obi-Wan blinked, his eyes still focused on the fruit as though now he was unsure what to do with it. The dark circles under his eyes only accentuated the pale, fraught lines of his skin.

“Let me,” Cody said, and took it from him before he could react. With quick and careful fingers, he finished removing the peel and pulled apart one of the sections. It wasn’t the freshest fruit in the world, the ends of it dried out and stringy, but Obi-Wan took it gratefully and bit into it with gusto. He ate hurriedly, and Cody peeled off another section for him seemingly seconds later, followed by a third. The trance must have taken more out of him than Cody had realized.

“I didn’t realize I was so hungry,” Obi-Wan said faintly, smiling again in jest at himself.

“I can get you more,” Cody offered, moving to stand.

“Don’t go,” Obi-Wan said quietly.

The words sent a forbidden thrill through Cody. It shouldn’t have, and certainly not in the current circumstances where General Skywalker was lucky to have survived and Obi-Wan seemed on the verge of collapse from healing him. But he couldn’t help it. Sitting here with Obi-Wan, able to comfort him, no matter how small of a comfort that might have been, was everything to him. He had only heard that voice, those words once before. As they had laid together in the aftermath of certain things on an otherwise unremarkable night and Cody had moved to leave, to let both of them forget that anything had happened. And Obi-Wan had called him back.

“You need to rest,” Cody said softly, afraid that the full sound of his voice might shatter whatever this moment was. That it might cause Obi-Wan to lean away from him instead of staying pressed against him as he worked on the final chews of his fruit, his eyes fixed on Anakin.

“It’s quite a draining process,” Obi-Wan said, “Most Jedi don’t learn it.”

“What made you want to learn?”

Obi-Wan didn’t speak for a moment, and Cody thought that he might have fallen asleep. When he did speak, his voice was raw with some emotion Cody hadn’t been prepared for. Guilt and sorrow and shame, all bundled together.

“I didn’t,” He said, “Not for a long time.”

Cody waited, knowing there was more to come.

“When Anakin lost his arm in our fight with Dooku, I realized that if a medic hadn’t gotten to us, he likely would have died from shock,” Obi-Wan was far away now, lost in memories Cody didn’t know. It was no secret that Count Dooku was the one responsible for General Skywalker’s mechanical arm which Cody could see the slightly fire damaged shell of on one of the tables. “If it had been just he and I, I couldn’t have saved him.”

“It’s not---”

But Obi-Wan shook his head, and Cody stopped his protestations. “I had neglected to learn it out of arrogance, Cody, nothing more. I thought that I could fight well enough that it wouldn’t ever be a problem.” He laughed again, though there was no humor in it, “I made sure to learn after that. I’m still not the best at it, I’m afraid, or I’d be able to help prevent more of the scarring.”

“You’ve made yourself sick,” Cody argued gently, “You’ve done more than enough.”

“I hope it’s helped him with the pain,” He sounded so unsure that Cody wanted to both comfort and shake him. Part of it, he knew, was the exhaustion. Would Obi-Wan have told him this If he was in his normal state of mind? Cody realized that he hoped that he would. They were important pieces of Obi-Wan, no matter how painful they might have been.

“Ill watch him,” Cody said, “So you can rest.”

“I can’t leave him,” Obi-Wan answered softly, “And I won’t.”

But he shifted closer to Cody, ignoring the stiffness of his armor to press against him. His head came to a rest on Cody’s shoulder, and Cody could feel the gentle rise and fall of his chest as he slipped almost immediately into sleep. True to his word, Cody kept his eyes on Skywalker, watching for any sign of distress. He moved his hand, pressing his palm to Obi-Wan’s who’s grip tightened in his sleep, holding Cody close to him.


End file.
